Venezuela question; and
glad as he was to see that question settled by England's acceptance
of an arbitration which she had previously denied the right of the
United States to demand, he held that England must beware of yielding
too readily to pressure from the United States, because such
compliance would encourage that aggressive spirit in the latter whose
consequences for both countries he feared. Never, perhaps, did he
incur so much obloquy as in defending, almost single-handed, the
British position in the Venezuelan affair. The attacks made all over
the country on the _Evening Post_ were, he used to say, like storms of
hail lashing against his windows. At the very end of his career,
he resisted the war with Spain and the annexation of the Philippine
Islands, deeming the acquisition of trans-Oceanic territories,
inhabited by inferior races, a dangerous new departure, opposed to
the traditions of the Fathers of the Republic, and inconsistent with
the principles on which the Republic was founded. No public writer
has left a more consistent record.

In private life Mr. Godkin was a faithful friend and a charming
companion, genial as well as witty, considerate of others, and liked
no less than admired by his staff on the _Evening Post_, free from
cynicism, and more indulgent in his views of human nature than might
have been gathered from his public utterances. He never despaired of
democratic government, yet his spirits had been damped by the faint
fulfilment of those hopes for the progress of free nations, and
especially of the United States, which had illumined his youth. The
slow advance of economic truths, the evils produced by the increase of
wealth, the growth of what he called "chromo-civilisation," the
indifference of the rich and educated to politics, the want of nerve
among politicians, the excitability of the masses, the tenacity with
which corruption and misgovernment held their ground, in spite of
repeated exposures, in cities like New York, Philadelphia, and
Chicago--all these things had so sunk into his soul that it became
hard to induce him to look at the other side, and to appreciate the
splendid recuperative forces which are at work in America. Thus his
friends were driven to that melancholy form of comfort which consists
in pointing out that other countries are no better. They argued that
England in particular, to which he had continued to look as the home
of political morality and enlightened State